Gothic Story

Time in a Nutshell

By: Dahlia Holbrook

      Remember those summer trips you used to take in high school? The ones where there was not a single chaperone. And everyone had to lie about where they were going, because they were afraid they wouldn't be allowed to go. Let’s be honest being a sixteen year old girl and asking your parents to go to an isolated cottage with a bunch of boys and no adults is not going to fly. So therefore everyone lies. 

                 I'm Lilly, I'm sixteen and I’m a junior at Grosse Pointe South High School. Normally when anyone hears 'Grosse Pointe' the first thing that comes to mind is snobby, pretentious rich kids. And some are. But not me, trust me when I say I wish I was rich. I'm not poor, but in the low end of middle class. Now my friend Alexis, she's loaded. She's one of the girls that has a house on Lakeshore, in the big mansion, probably the biggest one on her end. We are best friends; actually we take best friends to a whole new level. We would do anything for one another. We spend ever waking hour together. I know everything about Alexis, Alexis knows everything about me. Even when she started dating her boyfriend Michael we didn't sway in the slightest about our friendship. Of course we didn't spend as much time together I had to share. I was happy for Alexis, not to mention the fact that was a very attractive senior. But I guess it could all be traced back to him...

                  It all started at the senior graduation. Michael was going away to college in august all the way in California. He asked Alexis to come to the graduation, and she asked me to go. So I did, and we sat quietly listening to all of the seniors collect their diplomas. When it was finally over and Michael had talked to his family he came over and gave Alexis a hug. He had a huge smile on his tan perfectly bone structured face. He had his arm hanging on Alexis' shoulder when he said, "So finally done with High school!" 

"Yeah I'm surprised I wasn't sure if you could make it out alive" I smirked at him and smirked back. This is how we always were, teasing each other. "Anyways... I'm having some people over to my cottage next week, you guys want to come?" I thought about but before I could think to long Alexis had answered, "Yes! Who’s all going?" he started listing off some guys, Nick, David, and Adam. I didn't know any of them. I mean yes, I've heard of them but never talked to them. This could get awkward. But I didn't like the idea of Alexis going by herself with four boys. "Yeah, sure, when are we leaving?" that was my first mistake.

            Everyone got the approval from their parents to go and we were off. We left for Wolverine on June 21, the first day of summer. We all drove in the same car. It was a huge dark blue mini van, all 7 of us. Adam drove, Alexis and Michael double buckled which they had no problem with that. The drive from Grosse Pointe to Wolverine is normally a six hour drive, however with stops for food and gas it became a seven hour drive. By the time we got there it was late into the night. It was pouring rain but nothing to bad. We decided to leave our stuff in the car and to bring it inside in the morning when it was nicer.

The doorway of the house was arched, with a dark mahogany door. But what was really breathtaking was the inside. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The floor was a shiny clean marble floor. The ceiling was high up with a beautiful glowing chandelier; it sparkled like a bunch of little stars hanging in the sky. I walked up the black spiral stairs that lead to my room. I didn’t realize how high up I truly was until I got there. Something caught my eye, it was a clock. The art that was carved into it was what caught my eye. It sat just above the arched doorway, with what looks like leaves around the sides of it. I started to walk to what was told to be my room that I would share with Alexis. I got a little farther down the hallway when the clock started ticking loudly. It seemed like it slowed down, and you could hear every tick that came with every second. I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination or real. I walked down the stairs to find Alexis, and when I couldn’t find her I found Nick. He was flipping through channels, or at least trying to, the TV’s signal kept coming in and out. I asked Nick to come upstairs to look at the clock. By the time we got up the stairs the clock was no longer ticking. In fact it was frozen at the time of 11:45 P.M. I don’t think Nick noticed he cursed at me and walked back down to the den.

 My mind went back to Alexis. Where was she? I walked up and the down the hallway poking my head into each bedroom. I found Adam in his room reading a college pamphlet, David was in the kitchen talking to Michael. They were talking in hushed tones I didn’t know what about, before I even tried to figure out what it was that they were talking about I interrupted. “Where’s Alexis?” They both looked up. Michael raised an eyebrow at my question. “I thought she was with you?”

“What? No. I haven’t seen her since we got out of the car…” I felt a chill cover my whole body starting at the tip of my toes and go up to my head and shoot down again. I think they could tell I was worried because im pretty sure all the blood drained my face to because Michael got up and made me sit down. Or at least he tried, when he put his hand on my shoulder I shook it off. “Where is she?” I don’t know why I was so scared, I just had this really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. We decided maybe she went down to the beach to look around or out to the car. With both of these scenarios in mind I calmed down a little. Michael and David went down to the beach to look and I went out to the car. She wasn’t there. Just to be safe I went to our room to check. She wasn’t there either. Walking back down the hallway I heard the clock again. I stayed and watched as it kept going second by second minute by minute, when it stopped again. This time it stopped at midnight. It stayed like that for only a minute when it continued on again. Disoriented and confused I walked back down the stairs. Michael and David haven’t come back from the beach. So I went into the den where Nick was still sitting but he was sleeping. I started to shake him to try and wake him up. That’s when I saw the blood on his shirt…it looked like he had been stabbed in the stomach. I jolted backward and tripped over the table. I fell backwards and crawled away and sat up against the wall. The tears kept streaming down. Then I remembered Adam sitting upstairs, with that thought I sprinted up the stairs to his room. He was still sitting on his bed. I think I startled him, probably because my hands were covered in blood. I explained what I saw with Nick, but my story got cut short because I started hyperventilating. He made me take deep breaths, and lay down on the bed.

I think it was all of the trauma, and I was probably tired because I woke up alone in the same room except that it was pitch black. I still felt drowsy, but I got up and walked to my room still no Alexis. I walked down the stairs, when I noticed that the sun was coming up. The house was empty. I didn’t have time to do anything before the cops burst through the door. I was relieved but only for a moment, only until they started to handcuff me.

Its 3 years later and I’m now at a mental hospital. I killed all my friends violently, and blacked it all out. Every time that clock stopped was a time of the kill. They locked me up, and I lost my life and my best friend. I don’t know why and I don’t know how. I don’t even remember it. But I guess that’s the thing about time, it flies by when your having fun.